Jermaine O’Neal Out For The Season

First it was Jeff Green. Then came Chris Wilcox. Now the least surprising of Boston’s season-ending injuries is upon us. Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald tweets that Jermaine O’Neal will have surgery on his injured wrist and miss the remainder of the season. It seems likely that O’Neal will choose to retire on the back of this latest injury as his body seems incapable of holding up to the rigors of an NBA season.

This is no surprise to the Celtics. O’Neal has proven unreliable and borderline inscrutable in terms of his rehabilitation preferences since he’s been in Boston. Doc Rivers’ comments the last couple of weeks echo those he made early in the 2010-11 season, when his frustration with O’Neal boiled over onto the public record. From day one, Rivers never seemed to trust O’Neal would be there for the Celtics when the chips were down.

To be fair, O’Neal was brought in as a backup to Shaquille O’Neal last season with a prospective third-center role awaiting had Kendrick Perkins been healthy and on the roster come playoff time. But Shaq went down, Perk was traded and Danny Ainge was unable to find legitimate big man help in December, which left O’Neal in far too prominent a role for a team with title aspirations. He failed, yes, but he didn’t offer himself that MLE contract, nor is he responsible for the lack of quality pivot men on the roster.

The Celtics remain in the market for big men to fill out the roster with a decision to be made by March 23, the deadline for playoff eligibility.

I know people hated on Jermaine, which some of the criticism was fair, but man we needed another big back. At least he could block shots and rebound, something were missing. Good luck in other endeavors Jermaine.

Batman

Jermaine was a favorite of mine in Indiana
Inefficient superstar big men always get me
Good luck Jermaine
Now we don't have any bigs…..and JJJ is not ready

guest

No….Please….Don't go….

Good riddance. Even Turiaf would be a much bigger help than that guy.

Ray Ray for 3

Beat it, O'Neal. He was hardly on the court for us. He didn't reallly help us at all.

ElRoz

JO needs the surgery so he can resume his stellar playing next season…THEN he'll be ready again and be the training camp MVP just like this past one. Let's see who signs him and for how much….his agent will of course say "ready..feels great…in great shape" ….will there be a moron to believe him?

James Patrick

F#$k him! So tired of that guy! Didn't he put off surgery last year too? Such a waste of space on our team. Could not be happier to see him go!

Anthony

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't JO signed before Shaq?

There goes our pre-season MVP. Finally, after 2 horrendous season, the JO chapter is closed. Even though Stiesmma isn't quite ready, he's getting so valuable playing time before the playoffs. Let's see which bigmen will be available in the next few days.